Brussels, 26/10/2015 (Agence Europe) - European Commission Vice-President with responsibility for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic, speaking in Washington on Thursday 22 October, called for the inclusion in the EU-United States free-trade agreement that is currently under discussion of a dedicated energy chapter to guarantee unrestricted access to US natural gas and oil.
The four decades old ban on the export of US crude oil does not sit easily with the objectives of free trade, opined Sefcovic at a forum hosted by the Petersen Institute for International Economics. He pointed out that when the US entered into a free-trade agreement with a partner, generally such restrictions and export barriers cease to apply, the Market News International agency reported.
He hailed the recent progress in granting export licences for American LNG as an “encouraging sign” and hoped that the trend would continue with TTIP. “We are quite clear on the fact that we would very much like to have the energy chapter included in TTIP”, he stated.
Lifting the US restrictions on crude oil exports remains an “important objective”, Sefcovic said, acknowledging the “political difficulty” of the issue in the US. “It is a sensitive subject but it presents a big opportunity for the US in Europe”, he argued. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)